Shine On [180 Gram Vinyl] (LP)

Sarah McLachlan

Amoeba Review

05/05/2014

Shine On is a bit like a self pep talk. Sarah McLachlan wrote the album after a hell of a few years—her father died shortly after she separated from her husband. While we would have forgiven McLachlan for wallowing a bit, Shine On is all uplift—after “In Your Shoes’” mopey opening lines of “you turn the radio on, play your favorite song and cry,” she spends the rest of that song fighting to keep her chin up. “Flesh and Blood” finds McLachlan plugging her electric guitars back in and singing gleefully in a near-yodel. And she battles demons and nagging thoughts on “Monsters” with more of a rock stomp than she’s shown in some time. But it’s also nice to hear McLachlan do the piano ballad thing she does so well on songs like “Broken Heart,” which despite its subject matter (presumably about her father), has forward momentum and a country sway as McLachlan sings “I should be thinking with my head, and not with my broken heart.” It would seem on Shine On, McLachlan has found a way to keep going while inspiring her listeners to do the same.